British Sailors Back Home

(London) - The 15 British sailors and Royal Marines freed by Iran returned to Britain Thursday after 13 days in captivity. The British Airways plane with the 14 men and one woman sailor on board touched down at London's Heathrow airport around
noon GMT.

The naval personnel were immediately flown to a Royal Marines base in Devon for debriefing sessions. Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain was "rejoicing" at the sailors' return.

But referring to news from Iraq Thursday of the death of four British soldiers in a roadside bomb attack near Basra, he said the joy was tempered by the "sober and ugly reality of what is happening through terrorism in Iraq."